Posted on 09/24/2007 5:27:48 PM PDT by decimon
DeLAND, Fla. -- A 91-year-old World War II veteran spent eight days in jail after being accused of threatening his caregiver who apparently refused to let him take a walk around his assisted-living facility.
William Kepler was arrested at Deerfoot Manor Alf, an assisted-living home in DeLand, after an incident involving his nurse.
DeLand police were called to the facility, and Kepler was arrested after police said he refused to obey their commands.
Kepler said officers used excessive force on him during the incident.
After eight days in custody, James Floyd, who did not know Kepler, paid a $6,000 bond and took him into his own home.
"There is no excuse for what they did to him, especially when he did not show a firearm or pull a firearm or pull a weapon," Floyd said. "They just flat took him down."
Floyd said he bailed the 91-year-old out of jail because it upset him that he was behind bars.
"This man here, he fought for his country. He fought for me. He fought for you. That's why we're here. If it wasn't for him, this would be a messed up place. It tears me up," Floyd said.
Kepler admitted that he had a fake gun on his person but said he never pulled it out, according to the Local 6 News report.
"They should have an ethical (manager) in there watching them and correcting them. They are plenty wrong," Kepler said of the assisted-living home. "They need a legitimate, honest person to guide them because they're crooks."
The DeLand Police Department said any force was used because they said Kepler did not obey to their commands.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
The distinction between "Law Enforcement Officers" and "Peace Officers" in a nutshell.
This is disgraceful.
May whichever "Law Enforcement Officer" did this, and its brethren rot in hell.
It's not a phobia.
Sounds to me that LE possibly over reacted.Putting a 91 year old guy in jail for 8 days? That could have been handled better I think.He was not a young guy during the war years.Its pretty sad.
This is a marketplace of ideas, not a dictatorship. No one holds a gun to your head and makes you read my posts. I spoke to the subject. Can you?
I knew it.
Well, whatever it is, the pictures of nurses make it seem not so bad.
Huh?
I hope you have an opportunity to take her to a police open house or some such thing. If you explained your desire to the public relations personnel I think they would come up with something for you.
Best FReegrards.
Imagine the coincidence. I’m reading this while I have “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” on the tube.
Please clarify. I can't believe you saying it's healthy for a six year old girl to maintain a fear of police.
“We seem to be graced with such a connoisseur of life. Oh, goody.
This is a marketplace of ideas, not a dictatorship. No one holds a gun to your head and makes you read my posts. I spoke to the subject. Can you?”
Sorry there. I was more than a bit upset with the subject matter at hand and didn’t realize you were correcting simple typos, and my thoughts got ahead of me. (No real need to correct typos... we keyboard challenged folks understand.) Thought there for a second that you were just being picky on the grammar :)
And, being an oldish fart who feels like he’s had his teeth kicked in at times, I feel that I can speak to the subject. It would be very interesting to know all the facts in this case. Otherwise, we’re flying in the dark here.
Regards.
After eight days in custody, James Floyd, who did not know Kepler, paid a $6,000 bond and took him into his own home.
Good Samaritan James Floyd. May God bless this wonderful man for what he did.
“After eight days in custody, James Floyd, who did not know Kepler, paid a $6,000 bond and took him into his own home.
“There is no excuse for what they did to him, especially when he did not show a firearm or pull a firearm or pull a weapon,” Floyd said. “They just flat took him down.”
Floyd said he bailed the 91-year-old out of jail because it upset him that he was behind bars.
“This man here, he fought for his country. He fought for me. He fought for you. That’s why we’re here. If it wasn’t for him, this would be a messed up place. It tears me up,” Floyd said. “
Thanks James Floyd you are a good man.
More info on this: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02092407.htm
91-year-old out of jail after stranger posts bail
By JIM HAUG
Staff Writer
DELAND — As recently as 2004, William Kepler was touring Central America, enjoying the cool breezes of the Pacific Ocean.
But the 91-year-old traveler has new appreciation for freedom after a stranger paid $600 to bail him out of the Volusia Branch Jail late Saturday night.
Kepler was confined for eight days on charges he pointed a gun at a caregiver at a local nursing home and then resisted arrest. His arraignment hearing is scheduled for Oct. 11.
James Floyd, 49, of DeLand said he posted 10 percent of the $6,000 bond out of pity for a 91-year-old man in jail. Floyd also respects Kepler as a World War II veteran who served in both the Army and Navy.
“I’m the type of guy who doesn’t turn his back on the boys (veterans) for nothing,” Floyd said.
Floyd, who owns James Tree Service, has found lots of work removing fallen trees and storm debris in Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina. When he returns home to Florida, he misses the hospitality and kindness he experienced in the Deep South.
“They’re so homey in Mississippi,” Floyd said. “You come here it’s like night and day.”
Floyd said Kepler can stay at his DeLand home as long as he likes. His wife, Lisa, is a registered nurse who works at a different nursing home than the one where Kepler said he tried to bluff his way out with a gun.
Kepler said he has “no living family” but is a native of DeLand and an alumnus of Stetson University.
Floyd said Kepler told him his wife was murdered in North Carolina several years ago.
Floyd described Kepler as a “health nut” who frequently asks to go to the pharmacy for vitamins. Kepler said he never smoked or drank.
“My mother was a Swedish doctor of the highest caliber,” Kepler said Sunday. “She taught me everything about health.”
Kepler did not complain about his time in jail except “about the crummy food” and that his vitamins were taken away. He got his own his jail cell.
He lived in Sylva, N.C., as recently as February when he took a bus to “visit his hometown.” Kepler wound up at Deerfoot Manor after a visit to Florida Hospital DeLand.
A former yachtsman and competitive sailor, Kepler apparently likes the freedom to come and go. He has a U.S. passport with stamps showing he traveled to Honduras in 2004.
Kepler said he never liked the restrictions in the nursing home and felt he could not leave. “You were not allowed to go outside,” he said.
That’s when he decided to bluff his way out, but said his gun was never loaded.
Kepler said the charges against him are overblown “trivialities.”
jim.haug
“I would have introduced her to the officer rather than allow her to continue harboring a phobia.”
I could imagine a scenario where the 6/yo granddaughter scared of cops starts screaming when taken over to meet the cops. The cops overreact think she is abducted or something and tase the grandfather, kid is taken away until things get sorted out.
The phobia comes from good reason, or at least a daily exposure to it from our wonderful news and schools. There is no real separation, now a days. Kids this age are fully exposed to all the bad news about authority.
On a different note, once I was helping this mother who had a flat, she had 5 kids in the van going to a soccer game or something. My buddy and I were changing the tire and a cop pulled up. He put his lights on, which helped because there was a lot of traffic. While we finished getting her van back on the road, he got to sign autographs and show the kids his car. The kids loved him and he didn’t even get to tase anyone. That was the start of a very successful fishing trip for me and my buddy.
then keep your old, senile, frail, incontinent, dribbling, drooling old people at home, instead of carting them off for strangers to take care of....
BUT people that are abusive or disobedient or uncooperative don't get to stay in an assisted living facility....they get booted out to the nursing home.....
so you have your dad or you mom staying at this assisted living facility, and in the room next to theirs there is a crazy guy with a possible gun who is not following the rules....it only takes a minute for him to go to your parents' bed and shoot them or hurt them in some way.....
again, there is always the option of taking care of your own elders in your own home....
I can tell you a true story about a older guy in the hospital with another patient in the room...he was a nice enough old fella and he had a nice cane....
well, inside the cane was a SWORD and he nearly cut off the hand of a nurse with it, and what if he went after the other patient.....
we live in a funny world...no one wants to take care of the elderly least of all the children of that person, yet everyone wants to complain about the people that do take care of them....
again...complaining about something that YOU could have solved...
I'll bet every nursing home refused him....
that left a psych unit or jail.....
obviously there was no family that wanted to take him in.....
Tut tut tut .....touched a nerve di I ?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.